


Condemned

by Phandabbydosey



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Criminals, Alternate Universe - Prison, Enemies to Lovers, False Accusations, Gangs, Hacker!Dan, M/M, Mentions of Murder, Minor Violence, Past Relationship(s), Prison, bamf!dan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-18
Updated: 2017-01-18
Packaged: 2018-09-18 05:21:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9369788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phandabbydosey/pseuds/Phandabbydosey
Summary: Kind hearted Phil Lester has never so much slapped another person, but he finds himself locked away for the murder of his brother. He’s innocent, but no one will believe him, not when the only DNA on the murder weapon is his own. Phil struggles to come to terms with life in prison, though perhaps a familiar - albeit unwelcome - face from his high school days will help ease the transition.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was my fic for imsleepybuticanreblog for the phanficexchange on tumblr :D
> 
> My tumblr is phandabbydosey if you would rather read this over there :D
> 
> Beta-ed by the lovely gatsbys-old-sport over on tumblr

“Please, please I shouldn’t be here! I didn’t do anything! I’m innocent! Please let me go!”

Phil’s shouts echoed around the barren hallways and fell on the deaf ears of the guards escorting him to his cell. His cell. He was actually going to be locked in a cell for the next thirty years. He’d lose thirty years of his life.

He hadn’t even done anything, making the whole thing sting even more. He’d returned home to find blood in the hallway and the kitchen while the once vibrant blue eyes of his brother stared vacantly at the ceiling, their shine having been stolen by the glinting knife protruding from his chest.

Everything had passed in a blurred flurry after that, one moment he was clad in an ebony suit at his brother’s graveside and the next he was watching the heavy iron door slide closed on his prison cell. There was no evidence of anyone but Phil and his brother being in the room where he was murdered and, with his brother dead, Phil would be the sole benefactory of their parents’ grand estate. Coupled with a few more damning pieces of evidence, an indisputable case had been built against Phil and he soon found himself being locked away for murder in the first degree.

Phil’s stomach knotted tightly as the unyielding lock slide into place with a loud   _thunk_ that chased away any fleeting ideas of escape. Closing his eyes and leaning his forehead against the door that would confine him until he was fifty four years old, Phil let out a deep breath and took a moment before turning to examine his new home.

He expected the cracked and washed out colour of the paint on the four walls, the stark white sheets adorning the creaky looking metal bunk bed and the thick metal bars cutting across the clouds visible through the small window. He was a little surprised by the fact there was a small television hung up on the wall and a desk below the window, a short row of books and DVD’s lined up on the chipped wooden surface, but he guessed it would be counted as cruel to lock someone in a room for thirty years without so much as a book to keep them occupied.

What he didn’t expect, however, was a familiar pair of brown eyes to be watching him from the bottom bunk, a small crease beside the left one as the plump lips below twitched up into a smirk.

_Fuck no, anyone but him._

————————-

It’d been four years ago when the news broke that Daniel Howell, the resident ‘bad boy’ from Phil’s sleepy countryside town and a renowned computer genius, had been arrested. There had been a lot of theorising and gossip about just what he did to end up having a two month long trial in the London Supreme court with the media buzzing over every little detail they could get their hands on, but not much concrete information came through. A statement was released to the press after the case was closed that Dan had been sentenced to fifteen years inside and that the charges included fraud, theft, conspiracy and multiple breaches of the Computer Misuse Act as well as the Data Protection Act.

Phil hadn’t seen Dan since leaving high school, but when he saw that familiar, cocky smile on the face of the boy being ushered out of the courtroom on the news channel, all the memories flooded back to him and smacked him right in the chest. Locking eyes over the sea of students in the corridors, heated make out sessions in the toilet cubicles and tucked away in secluded corners of the school, sweaty nights spent under the sheets when breathy moans and panted curse words filled the air.

Phil had been completely smitten with the younger boy, enraptured by the slender body that was always clad in black or leather and entranced by the silky smooth voice that always held an arrogant lilt but spoke such intelligence. People had written Dan off due to his outward appearance and behaviour, assuming he was a lost cause destined to work a mediocre job for the rest of his life. Though he knew they were wrong, Phil didn’t really blame them. Being two years older than Dan, Phil was never in any classes with him, but the stories that circulated the school about Dan’s antics in class were enough to make Phil pity the poor teachers who had to deal with him.

Dan was smart - very smart - and he knew it, he also didn’t like being told what to do so there was generally a lot of friction between him and any authority figures. This, in turn, led to many hours spent in detention and enough angry letters sent home to put together dissertation.

Phil had eventually left for university and gradually lost contact with the other boy, both of them moving on and quickly forgetting about their little fling. They’d both handled it well and, other than the brief nostalgia he felt when he saw Dan on the news, Phil had no trouble accepting that he’d never see the other boy again.

Except he would see Dan again, because Dan was in his fucking jail cell.

“Hello Phil, long time no see.” Phil could _hear_ the smirk in Dan’s voice, the smirk that’d been the soundtrack to his final years of school. Taking a deep breath to steel himself, he shoved his feelings to the side and looked into Dan’s dark eyes.

“I-I must say, I wasn’t expecting to see you here,” Phil tried to imitate Dan’s confident tone, but the slightly scared wobble was more than obvious.

“I saw all about your trial on the news, who would’ve thought that dorky Phil Lester was capable of murdering his brother.”

“I didn’t murder him,” Phil said coldly, crossing his arms defensively, “I found him and was set up. I’m innocent.”

“‘Course you are, everyone in this place is innocent. Except the crazy ones of course, the ones who don’t care about the havoc they’ve caused.”

“Does that mean you aren’t innocent?” Phil grumbled and stalked over to the bed, not expecting an answer as he climbed up onto the top bunk.

As he stared up at the ceiling, her heard Dan murmur from beneath him, “Nope, I’m as guilty as they come”.

—————————————–

Phil didn’t think he’d be able to handle this for thirty years. He’d lost all control over his life, having to live in accordance to the schedule set out for him by someone he’d never met. He woke up around eight am, had breakfast at nine then was locked back in his cell until one. After that it was lunch, then work - Phil spent two hours preparing things for dinner then helped with the laundry - before dinner at six and ‘rec’ time before he was locked up again at nine. Unfortunately, Dan had been allocated the same jobs as Phil, so the only chance he had to escape the other man was during mealtimes and rec time. Though, Phil’s aversion towards Dan was starting to wane. He found himself smiling and occasionally giggling at Dan’s crude jokes, not resisting Dan’s attempts at conversation after lights out.

He tried to tell himself that the feelings from high school weren’t coming back, but he knew he was just deluding himself. It really didn’t help that, in their years apart, Dan had lost the boyish softness of his teenage face and grown into a - Phil refused to use the word beautiful - very attractive young man. He’d kept his personality though, still the same cocky, sarcastic boy he’d been in his youth. Phil didn’t think he’d be able to resist much longer.

Phil had been inside for a month now and he was slowly adjusting to the changes to his everyday life. He was starting to struggle less, though he still zoned out occasionally as he drowned in thoughts of what he was missing and how unfair all this was because he hadn’t done anything and now he was losing thirty years of his life and he _didn’t deserve it._

“Fucking hell Lester! Watch where you’re standing!” An angry, gruff voice accompanied by a loud clang snapped Phil out his daze and back into the kitchen. He turned to find Oscar, a stout fifty year with greying hair and a long history of assault charges culminating in a eight year sentence for grievous bodily harm. Phil would be lying if he said he wasn’t scared of the man, especially now he’d caused him to drop a pot of gravy all over himself.

This wasn’t going to go well.

“S-Sorry, I got distrac-” Phil started to stammer out an apology, but got cut off his nose crunched under the fist that’d been launched into it. He recoiled quickly, though the second punch to his jaw caught up with ease and sent him spinning down onto the floor.

Phil glanced up and cowered from the hulking figure advancing towards him with fists balled up, accepting the impending pummeling and silently praying he wouldn’t end up in the hospital. No more blows came though, because a pair of slender legs were suddenly in his line of sight.

“Leave him alone, Oscar,” Dan snarled, his voice protective as he stood over Phil, arms crossed across his chest and fire in his eyes, “Go back to punching the people who made your sandwich wrong.”

“Shut up Howell,” Oscar muttered bitterly, shooting Phil one more glare before slumping off. He knew he wouldn’t gain anything from pursuing the beating, he’d just end up with privileges being taken away.

“You’re a moron,” Dan sighed, slipping his hand into Phil’s and pulling him up to his feet. He placed a hand on either side of Phil’s face, passion still smoldering in his dark eyes as he inspected Phil’s nose and jaw.

“I didn’t do it on purpose,” Phil huffed, slapping Dan’s hands away when his rough ‘examination’ made Phil wince, “Get off, I’m going to the toilet to clean myself up.” Phil ignored Dan’s pout as he flounced away, holding his nose as he spoke to the warden and got permission to leave.

He’d recognised the look in Dan’s eyes, the stubborn glint as he’d tried to help. It was the same look that’d occupied them when Phil was ill and insisted he didn’t need looking after, only to have Dan show up at his door within the hour.

And he was right. As he was grabbing tissues to hold against his nose, the toilet door banged open and Dan strode in, immediately walking over to Phil and taking over holding the tissue for him.

“I don’t need you looking after me,” Phil huffed, snatching the tissue back, “How did you even get permission to leave?”

“I said I wanted to come check on you. That warden’s a big softie anyway,” Dan shrugged, tilting his head to look at the bruise forming on Phil’s jaw. He prodded it gently, his fingers tender as they probed for damage, “It’ll only bruise, not broken or anything.”

“Yeah, I think I would’ve noticed if it was anywhere near broken,” Phil rolled his eyes, but he didn’t brush Dan’s hand away this time. Instead, he found himself leaning into the touch slightly, his eyes lifting to meet Dan’s, “Thank you, by the way, for stopping Oscar.”

“I wasn’t just going to stand there and watch him pummel you,” Dan chuckled, small creases appearing beside his eyes, “I’ve always looked out for you and I’m not going to stop now.”

Phil smiled back at Dan, reminiscing on all the times Dan had punched someone for upsetting Phil or defended him from the homophobes at lunchtime. He may have been a ‘tough kid’, but Dan really was a sweetheart who would protect those he loved with everything he had. And Dan was still protecting Phil, did that mean he still loved him?

Their moment was suddenly interrupted by a warden banging on the door, yelling at them to hurry up and get back to work.

———————————–

“Dan?”

Phil’s voice broke the silence of the dark cell and he heard Dan shuffle slight on the bunk beneath him, the scratchy sheet rustling loudly. They’d both decided to go to bed early since they had nothing to do, the tv having been taken away after Phil got in trouble for supposedly causing the fight in the kitchen. Dan had tried to defend Phil but just got himself in trouble for backchatting.

“Yeah?”

“What did you actually _do_? I mean, to get arrested. On the news they mentioned some of the charges after you were sentenced but they never actually said what you did.”

Dan was silent for a few moments before speaking, his voice soft and holding a slightly bitter tone, “It was a few things. I’d been doing illegal stuff for quite a while, phishing and fraud and stuff like that just to get some extra money. After you left for uni, a few of my friends found out about it all and asked me to do some stuff with their school files. It was easy and they paid me pretty well so I figured I may as well try and get as much out of it as possible. They spread the word to the right people and I got more and more people paying me to hack into places or get them certain information.

“I don’t know how they found out about me, but this gang got in contact, said they had a ‘big job’ and needed someone like me. They were, like, proper mafia shit, organised crime and dark basements and guys in suits smoking cigars. I almost burst out laughing at how cliched it all was the first time I met with them the first time.  
“They were doing this big heist thing on some government building, trying to get back some sort of drug haul that’d been caught on it’s way into the country. Offered me a million quid to work with them on it. They needed me to get the layouts of the buildings, security schedules and all that then override all the cameras during the actual job. I think you guess how it turned out. Someone made a stupid mistake and they all got caught, some arsehole gave them my name so he’d get less jail time then they started digging into my past and worked out all the other crimes I’d committed. I still don’t know why the story about me blew up so much, I guess it’s because I was eighteen and had been arrested in connection to a break in at a government facility.

“But yeah, that’s my story and now I have eleven more years locked up in here. Sucks but that’s life.”

“At least you’re actually guilty,” Phil huffed, rolling onto his side because it made him feel closer to Dan somehow, “Not that anyone actually believes me.”

“I believe you,” Dan all but whispered, “I don’t think you’d ever kill someone, especially not for money. You’re actually a good person.”

Phil was stunned, though he really should’ve expected this. Dan knew him better than anyone, so he knew Phil would never intentionally hurt someone, let alone kill his own brother. Unfortunately, even character witnesses hadn’t been able to dispute the apparently solid proof that Phil had driven the knife into his brother’s chest.

“Do you mind if I come down onto your bunk?” Phil whispered, getting a murmured approval and soon finding himself cuddled up next to his ex-boyfriend, “Thank you, for believing me.”

“I’ve always believed you, we promised to always be honest and I know you’re not the sort of person to go back on a promise.”

Dan had to be doing this on purpose, deliberately bringing up their fond memories to remind Phil how amazing they’d been together, how much Phil still loved him.

Honestly, he didn’t care though. He gave into the feeling and leant upwards, blindly crashing his lips onto Dan’s. He felt Dan freeze but, before any doubts could form, the other man’s slightly chapped lips were moving against Phil’s hungrily.

God, Phil hadn’t realised just how much he’d missed those lips.

————————————

They had to keep it secret, lest the wardens find out and move them to different cells, but Dan and Phil easily slipped back into their relationship. Phil didn’t avoid Dan at rec time anymore, always worked beside him in the kitchen and laundry room, and they’d shared heated kisses and hot touches under the covers on Dan’s bunk. Dan refused to sit on the top with Phil after he’d almost rolled off onto the hard tiled floor during a particularly heated make out session.

Phil was finally settling into prison life, Dan helping massively and settling him with soothing words and embraces when things felt like they were too much. He was Phil’s lifeline and Phil didn’t know how he’d cope for the nineteen years he’d have on his own after Dan’s sentence was over.

All of a sudden though, it seemed he wouldn’t have to. Phil never usually had visitors because there was no one left to visit him, so he’d just wait in the cell while Dan spoke to his parents or friends. But, six months after Phil had first arrived, the warden who came to escort prisoners to the visiting room announced that they both had visitors. The pair exchanged a look and Dan sent Phil a reassuring smile before they left the cell, following the warden down to the visiting room.

Phil didn’t know who he was expecting, but he certainly wasn’t expecting to see the sharp cheekbones and shiny red lipstick of his lawyer. He assumed he wouldn’t have to see her after the trial finished and his sentence was passed. Surely, she had no reason to see a client after the trial, especially not six months into his sentence.

It turned out, she had every reason to come and visit him. Some new evidence had been found that suggested Phil wasn’t with his brother at the time of death, evidence that could prove his innocence and get him out of prison. She’d left with a promise to visit whenever there were updates, Phil trembling as he was escorted back to the cell.

Dan returned about fifteen minutes later, finding a pale faced and shell shocked looking Phil sitting on the bottom bunk, staring at nothing. “Phil,” Dan gasped, hurrying over and having Phil in his arms within a matter of seconds, “What happened? Who was that who visited you?”

“It-It was my lawyer,” Phil’s voice was quiet and weak with shock, his brain struggling to process what was happening, “She…They’ve found some more evidence and it might-might prove my innocence.”

Dan was silent for a moment and Phil knew exactly why; he was thinking about how, if Phil was found innocent and released, they wouldn’t be able to be together. Phil would only be able to visit Dan for an hour and a half every day for _eleven years._ Surely, a relationship couldn’t handle that. But it was such a selfish thought, Phil deserved to be free, so Dan would push that thought to side and smile widely down at his boyfriend. Phil could see Dan processing and, sure enough, he was soon looking up into Dan’s pearly white smile.

“That’s amazing,” the smile didn’t reach Dan’s eyes, but Phil didn’t point it out. Dan was trying his best to do what was right, “You might be able to get out of here.”

“Yeah,” Phil breathed, looking up into Dan’s eyes as his thoughts went along the same route as Dan’s. He felt tears started to well up and tried in vain to swallowed them down, quickly feeling them overflow and start running down his cheeks, “I-I don’t want to leave you. I could plead guilty, that way I could stay with you.”

Dan quickly pulled Phil in for another hug, leaning his face against Phil’s shoulder as his own tears started to flow. “I…You have to go Phil, you can’t waste thirty years just to be with me,” Dan choked out, wishing he could beg Phil to stay, “Besides, I’ll be out in eleven years, you’d be on your own for so long. Don’t be an idiot about this.”

“I…I just don’t want to lose you,” Phil whimpered, holding onto Dan tightly, tangling his fingers into the boy’s hair, “I-I love you Dan, I’ve always loved you and I don’t want to lose you again.”

“I love you too, I don’t think I ever stopped. But you can’t waste your life waiting for me Phil, I’m a screw up and I won’t bring anything good to your lif-”

Phil quickly crashed his lips onto Dan’s kissing him passionately for a few moments before pulling away, “Shut up, we’re going to make this work. I’ll visit you every day and wait for you to get out then we can start our life together. I’ll help you in anyway I can and we’ll have a proper life together, I promise.”

Dan looked into Phil’s eyes and leant forward, kissing him deeply and lovingly. “I love you Phil, I love you so much. So so much.”

————————————-

Two months later, Phil was standing in his cell for the last time. He’d been cleared of all charges; it turned out the man who had been in line to take over the company should Phil or his brother decline the position had committed the murder, framing Phil so he would be able to have the company all to himself. It was like a storyline from a cliched crime drama.

“You’re actually getting out,” Dan was stood beside Phil, trying to keep the sadness off his face. Of course, he was pleased Phil’s innocence had been proven and he would get his freedom back, but he couldn’t help but resent the fact he would lose his boyfriend so soon after getting him back.

“Yeah,” Phil breathed, his gaze panning the small cell before landing on Dan again. He wanted to be strong, not waste these precious moments by filling them with tears and running noses; but, upon seeing the heartbroken look Dan was futilely trying to hide in his eyes, he couldn’t hold it back.

Phil threw himself into Dan’s arms, the couple holding each other tightly. It was strange, their time together in prison was going to be the most freedom they had together until Dan was released. They both knew how strict the rules were during visiting hours, they’d be lucky to get a brief kiss.

“I’m going to visit you every day, I promise,” Phil sobbed, tangling his fingers into Dan’s hair before crashing their lips together in a passionate, hungry kiss.

“I love you, I love you so much,” Dan murmured hotly into Phil’s mouth, kissing back just as intensely, “I’m going to miss you.”

“I’m going to miss you too,” Phil wept, pulling away from the kiss and wiping Dan’s tears away, “You do you best to behave and do anything you can to get out earlier. Okay?”

“Only if you promise to make the most of being free,” Dan whispered, cupping Phil’s face lightly as the tears Phil removed were quickly replaced, “Get a good job and just…live. Don’t waste you time just waiting for me. Have fun.”

“I-I promise I’ll try,” Phil knew it would be difficult to get by without Dan after being with him almost twenty four seven for half a year, but he try his damned hardest to do as Dan asked.

All too soon, there was a loud knock on the door and a warden called through, asking Phil if he was ready to leave. Phil embraced Dan once more, kissed him sweetly then took a deep breath and turned away. He followed the warden down the corridor, listening as the heavy cell door was pushed closed, sealing the boy he loved inside while Phil walked away.

He was finally - and deservedly - free, but he would be tethered to the prison until Dan was too.

 


End file.
